On This Day:

Thursday August 8, 2013

This is the 220th day of the year, with 145 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: age and era

An age is a period of existence, a generation to which one belongs, or a long but indefinite space of time. In this context, it is any great period of human history distinguished by certain mythical or real characters: the Bronze Age, the Golden Age, the Middle Ages, etc. An era is an historical period marked by particular influences or social conditions, or a new stage in the history of an individual, institution, or nation: Christian Era, Depression Era. Ages and eras are also spoken of in the context of geology.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Dominic, Saints Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus, St. Hormidas the Martyr, and the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Tanzania: Farmers' Day.

Events

117 - Hadrian became emperor of Rome following the death of his father Trajan.
1844 - Brigham Young was chosen to head The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, succeeding Joseph Smith.
1876 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his mimeograph.
1899 - The first household refrigerating machine was patented.
1940 - The Battle of Britain, or "The Blitz," began when the German air force waged a sustained series of daytime air attacks on Britain.
1942 - During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure were executed by the United States for spying; two others were imprisoned.
1945 - President Harry Truman signed the United Nations Charter. 
1963 - Britain's "Great Train Robbery" took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds.
1974 - President Richard M. Nixon announced he would resign following new damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. 
1994 - Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two countries.

Births

1865 - Matthew A. Henson, American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary to North Pole.
1879 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary leader.
1896 - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American journalist, short story writer, novelist.
1919 - Dino DeLaurentis, American film producer.
1923 - Esther Williams, American swimmer, actress.